Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' 

The history of the Final Solution phase of the Nazi Holocaust, particularly with the most infamous of the death camps.

Stars:

Samuel West, Linda Ellerbee, Gert Heidenreich

Cast

Series cast summary:
Samuel West	...	Himself - Narrator 6 episodes, 2005
Linda Ellerbee	...	Herself - Hostess 6 episodes, 2005
Gert Heidenreich	...	Narrator in German version 6 episodes, 2005
Linda Hunt	...	Narrator 6 episodes, 2005
Horst-Günter Marx	...	Rudolph Höss 6 episodes, 2005
Klaus Mikoleit	...	Henrich Himmler 6 episodes, 2005
Grazyna Blecka-Kolska		4 episodes, 2005
Klaus Michal Zejdler		4 episodes, 2005
Dario Gabbai	...	Himself - Jewish Prisoner, Auschwitz 1944-1945 / ... 3 episodes, 2005
Oskar Gröning	...	Himself - SS Garrison, Auschwitz / ... 3 episodes, 2005
Libusa Breder	...	Herself - Jewish Prisoner, Auschwitz / ... 3 episodes, 2005
Eva Mozes Kor	...	Herself - Jewish Prisoner, Auschwitz / ... 3 episodes, 2005
Jozef Paczynski	...	Himself - Polish Political Prisoner, Auschwitz 3 episodes, 2005

Storyline

An in-depth visual and verbal account of one of the most notorious episodes of World War 2. Using location shots and combining CGI, for a 3-D realism, this is a documentary, through a timeline, showing its conception, ideals, horrors and liberation of the Death Camp that is Auschwitz and its role in "The Final Solution". Using reconstructions of key events by actors playing major Nazi hierarchical roles and real interviews from parties of all sides; ex-prisoners, old Schutzstaffel (SS) members and witnesses. Using archive footage conjoined with reflective, contemporary imagery it is a vivid and thorough historical telling of the atrocities of a political ideology that gave nothing but fear and death.

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | final solution | death camp | auschwitz | ss | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History | War

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German Polish Hungarian Slovak

Release Date:

11 January 2005 (UK)

Also Known As:

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation, KCET Hollywood

Technical Specs

Runtime:

285 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The currency Oskar Goening is seen sorting through in the safe is old US currency. During WWII, the currency would have been German, then current or Weimar era, not from the United States.

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Alternate Versions

Also shown on 1.33:1 aspect ratio in some TV releases.

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Connections

Referenced in Hitler's Place in History: The Faking of Adolf Hitler for History (2005)

User Reviews

The Final Solution: The Final Time?

The first time, at least, these Camps had been used, by the Spanish, was during the Third Cuban War of Independence, leading to the Spanish - American War (around late 1898). The Americans also used them for the Philippine - American War. It was only the mass scale by the British, in South Africa, that it was thought that they had started them. Ironically set up during the Second Boer War, (October 1899 to May 1902), in South Africa, to house refugees, whose homes and lands had been destroyed by the British. This was done under the name of the "Scorched Earth Policy", done as a military tactic, to destroy anything that might be of use to "the enemy", once rounded up, they would be easier to control, no doubt. It is also rumoured, that the British would shoot prisoners in the kneecap, to prevent any escape.

We have to remember that the people in these Camps were mostly civilians, so, they could not be classed as P.O.W.s, (Prisoners of War, i.e., Soldiers). These unfortunate casualties of War were placed in a camp to concentrate their numbers, and as said before, to control. Conditions in these Camps were terrible; disease and hunger were the order of the day.

A Concentration Camp is not the same as Extermination Camp, or Death Camp. This was to come later, as Nazi Concentration Camps.

Known as Konzentrationslager, or simply KZ, pronounced as Kah-Tzet, this initial, with a number following, tattooed on the forearm of the Prisoners. KZ is the abbreviation of Konzentrationslager. Hence, the prisoner would have tattooed KZ711966, for example, to show they were a prisoner of the Concentration Camp. Their own Identity number.

The Nazi Party, also known as NSDAP, or to give it's full title, The National Socialist German Workers' Party, first came into existence on March 7th 1918, by Anton Drexlar. This party, from Munich, was to be called The Free Committee for a German Workers' Peace. The name was changed shortly after to the German Workers' Party, this flourished to what is now known as the NSDAP. The bittersweet irony is that German army intelligence sent in a spy to look into the NSDAP, Adolf Hitler; he was so impressed, that he joined proper. It was to be February 24th, 1920, that the Nazi Party was born, after the name NSDAP was given as its new and proper title.

Since 1920 and up to the end of the second World War, Hitler had gained popularity and power, power on the promise of a free Germany, free of Non Nationals, for example, and free of the Jewish wealth and power, which they had used to their (the Jews) own advantage for gaining this wealth. It would seem that the Jews would bare the brunt of the xenophobia, paranoia, jealousy and blame. Blame for a Germany still counting the cost for losing the First World War (1914 - 1918).

There is a name for State Sponsored Genocide: Holocaust. The systematic extinction and precaution of one or more Race, such as Jews, Homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Gypsies to name a few, but in greater numbers, a few totalled around six to seven million in just six years or so. Ethnic Cleansing at its most destructive.

The most destructive of these Death Camps was a place some 60km Southwest of Krakow, Poland. This was camp number two, Auschwitz. Having three camps here, the number two camp was to be the Camp of mass murder. In the end, around one million Jews were murdered here, along with an estimated 75,000 Poles and 20,000 Roma People.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has done an excellent job of bringing us a truly magnificent portrait of the Pre History and magnitude of Auschwitz. With amazing CGI that allows us to see how Auschwitz looked like, when in complete working order. This Documented History shows the viewer why the camp was needed. We hear from the survivors off this Death Camp, also from the ex Nazis, who, some, still have no qualms of their actions; they say they were only following orders. Yes, this does really bring home the truths of this dreadful atrocity, the suffering of the many and the blind hatred of the evil that was Auschwitz, the Nazis and their Final Solution.

This is History Documentation at it's best, to see and finally to get to understand how this evil place came about, and the evil that drove it.